


The Seven Deadly Sins Of Captain Jack Harkness.

by The9thDoctor



Series: Jack's Story. [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-31
Updated: 2011-10-31
Packaged: 2017-10-25 03:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The9thDoctor/pseuds/The9thDoctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jack learns his lessons just a little bit too late...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seven Deadly Sins Of Captain Jack Harkness.

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the gaps between Boom Town and Bad Wolf, this is the first part in a loosely connected series and reposted here from LJ.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Captain Jack Harkness.

Or,

“This is getting to become a bad habit...”

 

 

 

1\. Lust

 

The alien was faintly turquoise. Jack had met one before (and by 'met' he of course really meant 'fucked six ways from Sunday') and remembered all about their interesting ways of spending their free time.

 

They had all landed on a windy desert planet in an out-of the way corner of the universe because the Doctor had decided that Rose should try some of the world's native fruit, which looked almost, but not quite, like a banana and tasted like nothing else in the galaxy.

 

The three of them had spent some time wandering through the marketplace, Jack watching the look on Rose's face as they turned each corner to find something new and wonderful.

 

Jack knew that it was probably partly his fault – the turquoise alien had whistled its musical language in his ear while he had been examining the alien equivalent of a bric-a-brac stall – and Jack had been instantly smitten. The Doctor would be around for a few more hours, he decided, and he knew where the TARDIS had been parked. A little R&R was just what he needed.

 

It had taken longer than Jack had thought it would, lost for a while in the alien's bed, thanking whichever deity looked after rogue Time Agents that their psychic fields were compatible and he could feel everything that was happening to both himself and his partner.

 

The TARDIS hadn't been where Jack had left it. The alien purred into Jack's ear as he stared at the empty alleyway.

 

He was almost at the stage of panicking when there was a thankfully familiar groaning noise and the TARDIS materialised.

 

The Doctor stuck his head out of the door and looked at Jack. He raised an eyebrow. Jack realised he was still clutching one of the alien's upper limbs and it was gently running its proboscis around the shell of his ear.

 

“I'm glad I didn't send Rose out here.” said the Doctor with a grin. “I'm not sure she'd appreciate it.”

 

Jack disengaged himself with an apologetic smile.

 

“Come on then,” sighed the Doctor. “I don't know, leave you alone for half an hour...”

 

Jack followed him into the TARDIS.

 

 

 

2\. Greed

 

The Brudyac battle cruiser appeared to be empty now. Jack supposed they had all taken the chance to escape in the pods after the Doctor had convinced the main computer that the engines were about to go critical. The prisoners had all been released, and the high prince returned to his home planet. A major intergalactic incident had been averted. All in all, it had been a successful day.

 

The only problem that Jack could see was that he now appeared to be completely alone on an abandoned spaceship with no control over the navigational computer.

 

He had only been gone five minutes – checking out the Brudyac weapons store for anything interesting, and boy, did they have some interesting stuff in there. Jack had felt like a kid in a candy shop. He had really wanted some more weapons – he couldn't believe the Doctor didn't have an armoury in the TARDIS.

 

He had picked up a pile of the most deadly looking ones and headed back to where the TARDIS had previously been. Previously being the operative word.

Jack sat down against the wall and waited.

 

The Doctor returned five hours later. He pushed open the door and leant up against the side of the TARDIS with his arms folded.

 

Jack grinned up at him. “Knew you'd remember me eventually.” he said.

 

The Doctor glanced at the pile of advanced weaponry at Jack's side. He'd had a few rethinks in the time he had been alone, and the heap of matte black metal and plastic was now twice as large.

 

“What do you think you're doing?” asked the Doctor eventually.

 

“Thought we might need them.”

 

“Well, we don't.” replied the Time Lord with a shake of his head.

 

“I do.” whined Jack, “I want them.”

 

“No way.”

 

“Aww, go on, Doc... I haven't got anything REALLY deadly.”

 

“Slightly deadly is bad enough, thank you... And don't call me 'Doc'”

 

“Just one?” asked Jack hopefully.

 

“Not on your life. You can either stay here with all your ill-gotten gains or get your arse back on board.”

 

Jack rolled his eyes like a scolded schoolboy and stood up.

 

The Doctor turned his back and walked stiffly back into his ship. Jack took one more glance at his pile of guns and sighed. He really wanted to keep them. All of them.

 

Instead he walked back into the TARDIS.

 

 

 

3.Sloth

 

Jack lay back in the hammock. The sea was orange, reflecting the burnt colour of the sky, and rippled up and down over the sand. It was very pretty, Jack thought, but could probably benefit from a few minor changes, like the addition of a large blue timetravelling spaceship in the shade of the trees father down the beach.

 

One of the native aliens scuttled over to him. Jack was impressed – despite being an insectoid species with large claws, he hadn't spilt a drop of Jack's proto-Martini.

 

He sighed. There were worse places he had been left, but he would much rather not be on his own at all. He hadn't even DONE anything this time. The Doctor had landed them on the planet and instructed them to 'have fun'. Jack had taken him at his word, and headed for the beach.

 

Tourism seemed to be big business on the planet, and the picturesque beachside hotel blended seamlessly into the local flora. They had been delighted to welcome him and Jack jumped at the chance to kick back, top up his tan, and relax with a few drinks.

 

Less than seven hours later, the Doctor and Rose had interrupted him halfway through a peculiar orangey-coconutty drink. Jack hadn't been impressed and had waved them away with a regal shake of his hand. The Doctor had brought him here to have fun, and Jack was planning to follow his orders to the letter for as long as humanly possible. He had had enough explosions and death for a very long time. The Doctor folded his arms and stared down at Jack, gently swinging between two almost-palmtrees. Then he had turned around and stomped off down the beach.

 

It took Jack three days before noticing he had been left behind. He took a sip of his Martini and closed his eyes. He could wait it out.

 

Finally a shadow fell over him. Jack cracked open an eye.

 

“Are you ready yet?” asked the Doctor.

 

Jack pulled himself up out of the hammock with an ungraceful flailing of limbs – it was always made tricky by the fact that they had been designed for creatures with significantly more appendages.

 

“I suppose so.” replied Jack, downing the rest of his drink and following the Doctor across the sand.

 

 

 

4\. Wrath.

 

Jack stalked through the corridors of the spaceship, blaster in hand. The Doctor had narrowed his eyes disapprovingly when he had tucked it in his pocket before they left the TARDIS, but it had been useful.

 

Jack was intensely aware that he had single-handedly wiped out the entire crew, but he was still so high on the rage that had overcome him that he couldn't quite bring himself to care.

 

The mainframe had addressed Jack in a highly inappropriate form of language which cast serious aspersions on the legitimacy of Jack's parents before he had managed to find out that his was the only life form signal on board. Then the computer had started singing to itself and refused to answer anymore of Jack's questions. Jack had shot it through the circuit board and all the lights had gone out.

 

The Doctor seemed to have forgotten him again.

 

Jack sincerely hoped this wasn't becoming a habit.

 

He crossed his arms and glared at the empty patch of air. The aliens had been systematically kidnapping people from the Earth colony on the planet below, and Jack had discovered the results of their 'scientific' research. He hadn't been amused, especially when the Doctor had told him when and where the ship was.

 

Jack couldn't help wondering if he had known any of the shrivelled corpses in the cells.

 

He spent the next few hours comprehensively kicking the shit out of the furniture and screaming at the top of his voice.

 

“I see you haven't calmed down then.” said a steely voice from the darkness of the hold.

 

Jack whirled round to stare at the Doctor.

 

“You knew all along, didn't you?” he demanded, advancing on the figure in black. “You knew everything!”

 

The Doctor remained impassive, staring levelly at Jack, who was shaking with anger only a few feet in front of him.

 

“Yes.” he replied finally. “I knew.”

 

“And it was a test.” said Jack, crossing his arms. “It was a fucking test, and I failed.”

 

“You killed everybody.”

 

Jack glared. “Of course I did. You saw what they were doing.”

 

The Doctor simply shook his head sadly and held the door to the TARDIS open. “You'll learn...”

 

 

 

5.Pride

 

In retrospect it had probably been a stupid idea to get into a pissing competition with the guy but Jack hadn't been able to stop himself – the man was an idiot.

 

He had met him before, somewhere in the Horsehead nebula. In a bar somewhere in the Horsehead nebula, he recalled. Of course they had both been using different names back then, and the stupid bastard had been a lot younger, but Jack recognised him immediately and had stomped over to continue the old argument.

 

Jack folded his arms. “I don't care.” he said, aware of how petty he was sounding.

 

The man smirked at him. “You just don't want to admit you were wrong.”

 

“I wasn't wrong. I'm never wrong.”

 

“It blew up.”

 

“I meant it to.”

 

“It took half the palace with it.”

 

“All part of the plan.”

 

The man shook his head. “They sentenced you to death. Just admit it – You were wrong.”

 

“Not gonna happen... Let's get out of here...” said Jack, turning away to address the patch of empty air that had previously contained the Doctor. “Not again.” he sighed.

 

“Yeah, he wandered off a while ago...” said the man, and Jack could hear the smug grin on his face. “I guess he couldn't stand your idiotic ramblings any more.”

 

Jack turned round and pointed an angry finger in the guy's face. “Now you just listen... It was a brilliant job, I made millions from that one con. I was fantastic. Absolutely amazing. Nobody suspected a thing...”

 

“Until the throne room blew up.”

 

“I was banking on them showing it to the emperor. All part of my ingenious plan. I needed a way in.”

 

The man scoffed. “Like hell.”

 

Jack walked away before he punched the guy in the face. How dare he question Jack's abilities as a conman? Jack was the best – he knew it.

 

Eventually the TARDIS appeared in the street outside and the Doctor emerged.

 

“Have you quite finished?” he asked.

 

“He had no idea how awesome that job was... I was on top form that week.” replied Jack, not wanting to let the subject go.

 

“I really don't care.” said the Doctor, herding Jack back on board.

 

 

 

6.Gluttony

 

The party had been going on for about four years, according to the Doctor. Jack had been impressed. It was his kind of planet.

 

Apparently, the long-lived race who were the inhabitants of the world were celebrating the ascension to the throne of the latest ruler and had sent out an open invitation to the rest of the universe.

 

Jack pulled up a chair at one of the long tables, which was heaving with all sorts of exotic foodstuffs. He grinned at the small green figure to his left. “Pass the pink goo, will you?”

 

The Doctor and Rose wandered past a short while later as Jack was poking a piece of what looked like some native wildlife with a knife.

 

The Doctor sighed. “What did I tell you?” he asked.

 

Jack swallowed, conscious of the dribble of pink on his chin. “Uh... Not to eat anything?” he replied with an apologetic smile. He looked down at his plate, and speared the piece of meat with his knife.

 

“Does anyone actually listen to me?” the Doctor demanded.

 

Jack shrugged and took another mouthful. “It's good.”

 

The Doctor left him to it. Left him to it for quite a long time actually. Jack lost track of time and the party continuing around him. Guests changed their seats as they moved closer to some new and untasted delicacy and Jack joined in with abandon. Plates of fruit and spiced meat and tiny bitesized cakes came and went and Jack tried to test them all, swapping advice with whoever was sitting next to him at the time.

 

“Try the soup in the purple bowl!” he cried excitedly to the cat-person beside him, waving a spoon in the air.

 

Finally, when he knew he couldn't eat any more without a messy result he sat back and glanced around for the Doctor. When he couldn't see him, he looked for the TARDIS, which was also conspicuously absent.

 

At least he wouldn't go hungry while he waited for the Doctor to come back.

 

Eventually... “That was disgusting.”

 

Jack burped loudly.

 

“So was that... Are you done?”

 

Jack nodded and pulled himself up out of his chair, making sure to grab a plate of his favourite delicacies on the way to the TARDIS.

 

 

 

7.Envy

 

Jack glared at the figures walking away from him, arm in arm. It just wasn't fair. The two of them has been giggling together all day, shrieking out impenetrable phrases that Jack couldn't hope to understand, but had both the Doctor and Rose in hysterics.

 

Well that was just fine with Jack, if they wanted to play their chummy little games, he wouldn't stand in their way. They obviously wanted some alone time, a chance to get it all out of their system without having to explain everything to a clueless ex-Time Agent who was just getting in the way of those oh-so-amusing anecdotes of theirs.

 

He watched as they turned the corner and then slumped down on a chair, waving over a waiter. Jack ordered a small coffee. A pitstop in1960's Liverpool to give Rose a chance to see The Beatles live in the Cavern had a few upsides, and proper coffee was definitely one of them.

 

It wasn't until the third cup that he realised that he was jealous of them. Of their easy familiarity together, of their shared history and of the simple, uncomplicated friendship between them. For the first time, Jack found himself wondering about those times before, wondered why he had been so easy to leave behind.

 

Jack spent a week in the city in the end, mostly spent drinking coffee in the small cafe, playing a range of Motown hits on the jukebox and paying his way with a stash of mid 20th century cash he had taken from the TARDIS vault. So far nobody had noticed that it wouldn't technically be legal tender for another two years, but it was only a matter of time.

 

Three days in, Jack stopped wanting to be in with all their little jokes, to laugh about Charles Dickens and cry over Welsh housemaids, and just wanted to fly through space and time with them again. He wanted to make his own stories.

 

When the TARDIS landed in front of him one night, and the Doctor emerged, Jack was almost tempted to tell him to shove off and leave him alone. Here was as good as any to be left, and Jack was damned if it was going to happen to him again.

 

Instead he thought about all the adventures he would miss out on, and knew that he would never be able to willingly let the opportunity go. He couldn't stand the idea that Rose would be the only one to experience all those things.

 

He stomped towards the Doctor.

 

“This is your last chance...” the Time Lord whispered to him as Jack passed him.

 

 

 

8.Death

 

When Jack woke up in a way that wasn't quite waking up at all and more like breaking the surface of a deep pool of water, he was confused for a moment. He remembered the Daleks – certain that there had been three of them and that he had run out of bullets some time ago – he remembered the battle, the loss of all the brave volunteers and Lynda-with-a-Y and knew that the war should have been lost. Then he remembered the only possible reason why they would have won.

 

Jack ran.

 

He ran as fast as he could, muttering half-remembered prayers and curses under his breath, but the TARDIS still faded out of view in front of him.

 

By now he should have been used to it. He tried to justify the Doctor's departure to himself in a variety of ways. He was just going back to pick up Rose now that the crisis was averted, he needed to check that his plan had worked, he'd run out of milk and just popped out to the shops.

 

Jack started laughing at the last thought, and found he couldn't stop. Loud, hysterical laughter echoed through the empty station as he realised that he had just blown his last chance.

 

Jack stopped laughing then, and started crying.

 

He still waited for him to come back though, because there wasn't anything else he could do. Jack waited for longer than he had ever had to wait before, but he didn't come back – just as Jack knew he wouldn't.

 

It was just like him to only work out what the Doctor had been trying to tell him when it was too late. All those times before, all those practice runs that weren't quite for practice at all, (Who were they practice for, anyway? The Doctor? Jack?) Jack got the feeling that the Doctor had known. The Doctor had known since 1941 and had been trying to tell Jack the future and Jack had refused to listen.

 

Later, thousands of years in the past, Jack will tell people that the Doctor is the one who changed him – made him a better person – and that's true.

 

What Jack doesn't tell people is that it was only when the Doctor left him that he realised that he needed to change at all. 


End file.
